


an eternity in your stare

by brickmaster



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Brown Eyed Sora, Childhood Friends, Developing Relationship to Established Relationship, Ficlet, Friends to Lovers, Future Fic, M/M, Pining, Post-Canon, post-kh3, sora's single mom agenda
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:01:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22178215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brickmaster/pseuds/brickmaster
Summary: They are the same eyes he’s ever known, kind and curious and brave as they meet his stare. In that moment, Riku feels like the blue he’s dreamed about all these years were just a placeholder, a pale substitute when presented with this.
Relationships: Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 112





	an eternity in your stare

**Author's Note:**

> My little contribution to the brown eyed Sora agenda which has all the rights because brown eyes are enchanting.

Riku sees Sora’s eyes for the first time when they are grown.

The Master of Masters has been defeated to protect the world of light, one more bad man in a line of many, and the fighting has finally come to an end. 

It’s over. 

Riku lowers Braveheart with a measured exhale, a smile teasing the edges of his mouth. His fingers tingle, little sparks of light buzzing across his knuckles as he waves his keyblade away and a weight that he’s shouldered since he was fifteen seems to dissipate with it. Sora was next to him when the battle began, always within reach when they fight, and Riku turns to him as the full realization of their victory settles.

Sora is looking up at the sky, watching the remnants of No Name float towards the setting sun. The Gazing Eye is the last piece to disappear in a flash of light, and a collective breath rushes out of the guardians at the finality of it. Riku makes his way over, feet tiredly scuffing against the ground, clenched fist unfurling to cup Sora’s shoulder. He leans around to meet Sora’s eyes and startles at what he sees. Riku moves to face him fully, grips his shoulders and ducks his head to meet Sora’s eyes. 

Sora’s eyes are inexplicably _brown_. So unlike the color that Riku had memorized for decades and the change is so jarring that he loses himself, caresses Sora’s forehead to push his bangs back in order to _see_.

They are the same eyes he’s ever known, kind and curious and brave as they meet his stare. In that moment, Riku feels like the blue he’s dreamed about all these years were just a placeholder, a pale substitute when presented with this. Warm, rich shades of brown and gold stare back at him, reminiscent of the Tiger’s Eye he grew up collecting on the Islands, and he feels like he’s seeing Sora for the very first time. The sweep of Sora’s dark lashes breaks his reverie and he finally realizes Sora’s hands are resting on his arms. 

“Riku? Are you okay?” Sora’s eyebrows are pinched over those lovely eyes, voice low and soft like the fingers clasping his arms. Riku nods dumbly, mind rearranging and adjusting to this new piece of Sora to commit to memory.

“Yeah, but Sora... what happened to your _eyes_?” 

Sora blinks up at him with a frown, pats the pockets of his pants and jacket until he finally pulls out his gummiphone. Faster than Riku can comprehend, Sora flips his phone around in his hand and taps across the screen and takes a picture of himself. 

“Oh…” Sora’s voice trails off as he stares down at the photo and Riku’s heart sinks with it. He knows what it’s like to see yourself and not recognize who’s looking back, how much that can shift and warp your perception of yourself. A piece of Riku fractures at the thought of Sora discontent with himself, with these lovely eyes, but he buries his disappointment because this isn’t about _him_. Nevertheless, he steps closer, hands curling around Sora’s back to pull him into a hug- 

“They look like my _mom’s_. You remember?” Sora is _beaming_ , brilliant and bright up at Riku and his heart stumbles over itself at how those eyes glint in the waning sunlight, “She has the prettiest, darkest eyes and I always _wanted_ …” 

Sora trails off once more, hand tight around his phone, and Riku gives in and closes the handful of inches separating them until they’re pressed tightly together. He rests his chin on Sora’s wild tangle of hair, tries to calm his thumping pulse and keeps his hold loose enough for Sora to break away no matter how badly he wants to hold him _tighter, closer_.

“ _Of course_ I remember,” he whispers, and he does. 

Kumo, much like her son, was impossible to forget. Sora’s kindness and positivity were inherited, cultivated by Kumo singlehandedly until he blossomed into the beautiful young man in Riku’s arms. She was always ready with a smile, open ears, and built a home so full of love that Riku felt more welcome _there_ than his own. Skinned knees, homemade mango popsicles, and afternoons laying in front of the fan as Kumo cooked and wove stories of sea dragons and mermaids in the kitchen. Riku remembers even then, that he wanted to hold onto these people, that feeling, forever. His childhood was full of light, all encompassing, and it was those memories more than anything that lit his way in the darkness. 

Sora’s eyes were an anomaly in his family, something unexplainable and unexpected, but thinking back to the Gazing Eye maybe it was all a part of something bigger. Their lives have been pushed and pulled by destiny all these years, who’s to say that something as seemingly insignificant as eye color wouldn’t be tethered to that as well.

“I think it must have had something to do with the Master of Masters disappearing. I think… I think he might have been a part of our lives for far longer than we’ll ever really understand,” Riku pulls back and looks down into Sora’s watery eyes. Sora looks more like Kumo than ever before; dark hair, dark skin, and dark eyes overflowing with the breadth of his heart. Sora has always been open with his emotions but a veil seems to have been lifted. The homesickness and relief and happiness are all swirling together and Riku wants to trace his fingers beneath his lashes, wants to touch the pin pricks of gold in his irises, “They do look like hers. Your, uh, eyes I mean. You look lov-”

Donald and Goofy rush towards them and nearly knocks them to the ground with their exuberance. Riku steadies them both, releases Sora’s shoulders and steps back to let the trio have their moment but he can’t stop _looking_. Sora grins and hugs his longtime companions, his joyous laughter ringing across the battlefield. 

Riku is mesmerized by the light refracting in those dark eyes and he knows, fist clenching at his side, that he would have succumbed to the darkness sooner if it was half as beautiful as this.

\--

Riku wakes up to Sora everyday for many, many years long after the Master of Master's defeat. Day by day he waits to see dark lashes give way to even darker eyes, until Sora fully wakes, and Riku falls in love all over again.

His eyes fluctuate in the light but they were almost always the color of the earth. Rich, deep, and dark as the soil after it rains with the promise of new growth, new life. 

Riku learned very young the meaning of his name, that his mother named him after the land hoping he would grow to be as resilient and generous as his namesake. Looking at Sora, he thinks Riku must not mean _‘land’_ but instead _‘belonging to’_ because Sora’s eyes encapsulate the entirety of the world. 

Yes, he loves Sora’s dark eyes most of all.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Come talk kh and soriku with me on twitter at @brickmaster_p


End file.
